Tuesday Tome Week 11 – Good Talk, Dad

Like I said last week, I needed a funny book after Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Enter Good Talk, Dad, the Anna Porter Public Library Book Group selection for the month of March. We will discuss this in a couple of weeks, so I will only share here my impression of this book.

First off, it is written by liberal journalists Bill Geist and Willie Geist, father and son who work at CBS and MSNBC respectively. As such, the book presents liberal ideas and concepts. It bashes the Vietnam war and wars in general, states that lenient parenting can produce good results and glamorizes choices that go against a biblical lifestyle.

I don’t even want to start arguing the reverse position of the above, – where WOULD I start? – but I disagree with the values espoused by these two journalists with every fiber of my being. In fact, the first day I started reading it, I wrote inside the front cover “funny book and the reason I reject American public schools.”

Having said all this, the book IS funny. Ha ha funny. The guys are talented when it comes to humor. They know how to tell a joke, how to be self-deprecating, and how to tell a story to keep you on the edge of your seat. I finished the book in three days while walking on my tread mill. I love multitasking, don’t you?

The only place where they lost me was when the in-depth talk about sports. Not only do I not understand football or baseball, detailed descriptions of games and game heroes bore me to tears. However, I persevered and got through those chapters and enjoyed the rest of the book just fine.

The other part that was interesting to me was that Geist the father has Parkinson’s and they talk about how he was in denial for the longest time, keeping it secret for as long as possible even from his own children. As they point out themselves, their family dynamics are not the healthiest in the world.

Once he finally came out about his diagnosis, Geist senior received a lot of support and was able to work with Michael J. Fox in bringing more awareness about Parkinson’s. So everything works together for good. Overall a good read, a funny read, albeit a liberal one.